She did not win his taste a bit.

Had she been younger, less decided in tone, and without a title, it is very possible that she would have offended his native, secret, and dominating fastidiousness as much as did Emilia.

Then, what made him subject at all to her influence, as he felt himself beginning to be?
She supplied a deficiency in the youth.
He was growing and uncertain: she was set and decisive.

In his soul he adored the extreme refinement of woman; even up to the thin edge of inanity (which neighbours what the philosopher could tell him if he would, and would, if it were permitted to him).

Nothing was too white, too saintly, or too misty, for his conception of abstract woman.